


Week 3:  Book 3 speculation (Captive Prince meta)

by Mesa



Series: Five Weeks of Captive Prince Meta [3]
Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: M/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 13:06:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5709286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mesa/pseuds/Mesa





	Week 3:  Book 3 speculation (Captive Prince meta)

Welcome to Week 3 of _5 Weeks of_ Captive Prince _Meta_.  Thanks to everyone who has read or engaged with this series.  Just two more weeks of meta – three weeks till the next book is out!     


For Week 3, I’m speculating on plot.  Fortunately this should be a bit shorter than last week’s opus.   


### What we know

I want to start this week with what we know about Book 3, and then speculate wildly from there.    


What we know is limited.  We have [the publisher’s blurb](http://www.amazon.com/Kings-Rising-Captive-Prince-Trilogy/dp/0425273997/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1452457453&sr=8-2&keywords=captive+prince):

> _Damianos of Akielos has returned.His identity now revealed, Damen must face his master Prince Laurent as Damianos of Akielos, the man Laurent has sworn to kill._
> 
> _On the brink of a momentous battle, the future of both their countries hangs in the balance. In the south, Kastor’s forces are massing. In the north, the Regent’s armies are mobilising for war. Damen’s only hope of reclaiming his throne is to fight together with Laurent against their usurpers._
> 
> _Forced into an uneasy alliance the two princes journey deep into Akielos, where they face their most dangerous opposition yet. But even if the fragile trust they have built survives the revelation of Damen’s identity—can it stand against the Regent’s final, deadly play for the throne?_

And the two snippets from Chapter 9, posted by the author [here ](http://freece.livejournal.com/65573.html)and [here](http://freece.livejournal.com/71893.html). According to Amazon, Book 3 has 363 pages which makes it slightly longer than Book 2, which had 21 chapters.  So I’m going to assume that Chapter 9 is somewhere around the mid-point of Book 3.

I believe we also have a commitment from the author that the overall series has a HEA ending.

That’s about it in terms of information from authoritative sources.    


Based on these and what we know from the end of Book 2, I think the plot elements that have to happen for sure are:

  * A resolution of the planned confrontation with the Regent’s forces, either at Charcy or Fortaine or elsewhere (from end of Book 2)
  * Public knowledge of Damen’s real identity, with either Laurent finding out or Laurent admitting he knows
  * Laurent and Damen both in Akielos at some point
  * A final confrontation with the Regent
  * A final confrontation with Kastor
  * A resolution/happy ending of some kind for Damen and Laurent



### Speculation with some foundation

Proceeding into speculation based on some foundation, here are a few other strong likelihoods:  


  * We know that whatever happens at Charcy/Fortaine is not a definitive win for Laurent, since the publisher’s blurb refers to the Regent’s “final, deadly play for the throne” which presumably happens towards the end of the story.  So let’s call the Charcy/Fortaine engagement a loss for Laurent.  
  

  * The first snippet is set inside some kind of large fort-like structure that has windows with “Veretian grilles” and a bed “in the Akielon style”.  This suggests the location is somewhere with both Veretian and Akielon influences, which suggests somewhere on the border.  I saw at least one reader speculate that the setting is Marlas, which makes the most sense to me given that Laurent and Damen’s Akielon ally is Nikandros, who presumably controls Marlas at this point.  Of course Marlas also has emotional significance for both Laurent and Damen, which would add to the dramatic tension.  So I’m going to go ahead and conclude that in Chapter 9, Damen and Laurent are in Akielos.  
  

  * We don’t know the relative order of the two final struggles (with the Regent and Kastor) but I tend to think that the battle with the Regent is the bigger climax, given that both Laurent and Damen have a personal investment in defeating him; the battle with Kastor would belong mostly to Damen.  This is consistent with the publisher’s blurb which seems to suggest the Regent’s “final play” is the final highlight of the story.  So I’ll assume that Kastor is defeated before the Regent.  
  

  * While we don’t have definitive evidence for it, I think most of us would also expect that at some point Damen will become aware of the Regent’s abuse of Laurent.  There’s a hint of it at the end of the first snippet, but since Damen is a bit dense, it’s unclear whether this will be the point where he realizes.  Personally, I suspect that revelation will be at a more climactic moment – perhaps during the final battle with the Regent.  
  

  * Finally, I think it’s safe to assume that a HEA ending means both a personal resolution between Damen and Laurent, and some kind of political truce or alliance between Akielos and Vere.  




So based on what we know and some reasonably solid guesses, I think we can order the key plot elements like this:

  1. Laurent loses to (or fails to defeat) the Regent at Charcy/Fortaine
  2. Revelation/confrontation over Damen’s identity
  3. Damen and Laurent at Marlas (Chapter 9)
  4. Final battle with Kastor
  5. Final battle with Regent/revelation of Regent’s abuse
  6. Resolution between Laurent and Damen / Vere and Akielos
  7. Happy ever after



Between reclaiming two thrones, and resolving a couple of thorny personal and political issues, I think the second half of the book (from Chapter 9 on) is pretty full.   


It’s what happens before Chapter 9 that is a bit of a blank slate for me.  We only know for sure of two things that happen in the first half of the book.    


### Wild speculation

So here is where I’m entering wild speculation territory:  What if the two pre-Chapter 9 events are related?  What if the reason Laurent loses to, or fails to definitively defeat, the Regent’s forces at Charcy is somehow related to a revelation about Damen’s identity?

While there’s been a lot of discussion about whether Laurent knows Damen’s identity, so far I haven’t explored whether the Regent knows.  Personally, I find it almost impossible to imagine that he doesn’t.    


On this point, I tend to agree with Damen – even though we know he isn’t always the sharpest knife in the drawer, I think he may have a couple of things right, in his sudden internal realization in Chapter 21:

> _It had never made sense that Kastor had kept him alive. Kastor had been so careful to obliterate every piece of evidence of his treachery. He had ordered all of the witnesses killed, from slaves to men of high rank like Adrastus. Leaving Damen alive was mad, dangerous. There was always the possibility that Damen would escape and return to challenge Kastor for the throne._
> 
> _But Kastor had made an alliance with the Regent. And in exchange for troops, he had given the Regent slaves.  
> _
> 
> _One slave in particular. Damen felt hot, then cold. Could it be that he had been the Regent’s price? That in exchange for troops, the Regent had said, I want Damianos sent as a bed slave to my nephew?_

I have to agree with Damen here:  


> _It had never really had the stamp of Kastor. Kastor was capable of anger, of brutality, but his actions were straightforward. This kind of imaginative cruelty belonged to someone else.  
> _

I saw speculation somewhere – and unfortunately I can’t remember where, to give credit – that totally resonated with me:  that the Regent has always kept his knowledge of Damen’s identity as a failsafe to use against Laurent at the most opportune moment (as Laurent says, the Regent ‘ _plans for victory and he plans for defeat_.’).  By pulling this out at a key moment, the Regent expects he can cause Laurent to “blunder” strategically – much as he (almost) did by having his herald pull out Nicaise’s head at the moment of his challenge.

We don’t know the exact plan Laurent and Damen have in place at the end of Book 2, but it appears to have something to do with Laurent and his men taking Fortaine – possibly to intercept Guion’s men before they can join the Regent’s forces? – and then meeting Damen somewhere in two days – perhaps to face the Regent at Charcy.  If that (or something similar) is the case, Damen will not have chance to speak to Laurent before they confront the Regent, which means that if the Regent reveals Damen’s identity then, Damen would not have time to prepare Laurent or Laurent’s troops in advance.   


So my speculation is that some time during the battle with the Regent and/or Guion near Charcy or Fortaine, the Regent will publicly reveal Damen’s identity.  Whether or not Laurent already knows, I can imagine that a public revelation, in front of both sets of troops, with no preparation, could cause a reaction that tilts the balance against Laurent’s forces in the ensuing battle.

The actual confrontation between Laurent and Damen would then happen after losing this key battle with the Regent.  Again, as many readers have pointed out, whether Laurent knows Damen’s identity or not, having that knowledge out in public will certainly lead to some kind of clash between them.    


Returning to the first snippet from Chapter 9, we know that the relationship between them has changed.  I’ve seen suggestions from readers that Laurent has been managing his feelings for Damen by internally denying the knowledge of who he is, and that the public revelation of Damen’s identity will make it impossible for him to continue sleeping with Damen.   


As always, I think all interpretations are possible.  To me the snippet suggests not only that Damen and Laurent are not sleeping together – it suggests they aren’t on good terms at all.

> _Damen could pretend for a moment that they were what they seemed to be: brothers in arms. Friends._   
> 

… so they aren’t friends.  


> _‘I miss you,’ said Laurent. ‘I miss our conversations.’_   
> 

… they no longer _talk_ to each other.  


> _sober, Laurent had made the line very clear_   
> 

and  


> _‘You’re going to kill me when you sober up.’  
> _

… it’s Laurent who has ended their previous more cordial relationship.  


One more thought on the snippet.  It’s unclear what Laurent is referring to here:  


> _‘I tried to kill you. I can’t seem to go through with it. You keep overturning all my plans.’  
> _

When has Laurent tried to kill Damen in the past?  We could interpret this to mean forcing Damen into the ring with Govart, and/or having him flogged.  But it doesn’t seem to me that Laurent intended either of those things to actually kill Damen – they were meant to humiliate him and make him suffer, but stop short of actually killing him, if only because that would be too much of a violation of the Regent’s order.  I’m not sure whether Laurent would think back on these as attempts to kill Damen.  


What about “ _You keep overturning all my plans_ ”?  I can see this applying to the ring fight – Laurent clearly did have a plan there (for Damen to be raped, though, not killed, as far as I understand the ring fights), and Damen clearly overturned it.  So that would make sense.  I’m not sure Laurent would accuse Damen of “overturning my plans” by surviving the whipping, though.   


Is there another way of interpreting Laurent’s words here?  I can’t think of any other time Laurent has attempted to kill Damen – so far.  But he always intended to revenge Auguste by at least trying to kill Damianos.  What if, in a slightly unstable moment during their first post-reveal confrontation, Laurent challenges Damen, or just lunges at him blindly, or something like that?  The narrative has repeatedly emphasized how Laurent makes strategic mistakes by reacting emotionally in some situations, and whether or not Laurent already knows, it’s hard to imagine a more emotional situation than a public revelation that you’ve slept with your brother’s killer. 

All right … this last part isn’t so much even wild speculation as it is a kind of wish list for me.  As a reader, my personal preference would be for some very dramatic confrontation between Damen and Laurent, and this is just one way I could see it happening.

I’ll leave it there for his week.  Next week:  A note on the writing in Captive Prince.


End file.
